P.S. What do you mean by "for real estate related jobs you don't even have the client info ahead of time"? You are starting work without even knowing who your client is?
It's that way for me sometimes too. Quite often I show up at the behest of a realtor and on very short notice. But, at the outset, the paying client will be some faceless homeowner. And your average homeowner usually has a day job that can make them a bit slow to coordinate with with respect to contracts etc.
Like most things in life, this winds up being about the odds/risk. I find that working this way causes me very few problems. So it makes sense for me to do it. If it caused me problems with any regularly then I would not do it. Like a lab rat slapping the feeder button and occasionally getting electrocuted.
I do
try to connect with the homeowner beforehand whenever that is feasible. I've even developed a spiel for this that has been serving me very well:
1) I've crafted a fairly inoffensive bit of verbiage that basically says "Your average homeowner is a lousy payer and I don't have the patience for collection efforts".
2) Your price is [FEE] if you pay after the fact. This fee will be upper 1/3 relative to market.
3) Your price is [FEE/2] if you pay electronically in advance. This feel will be lower 1/3 relative to market.
Virtually all homeowners go for the lower fee paid in advance. And then I feel great about heading out for the assignment because I've already been paid and I don't have to worry about getting shafted. And the homeowner is usually super happy about the value for money that they are getting (and it is great VFM).
Believe it or not, the most professionally satisfying engineering assignment that I've ever taken on was helping a homeowner with a basement wall condition assessment through a realtor and on 2HR notice. The money was nothing but it ended with a very young, first time homeowner literally crying with relief on December 22nd because I told her that her basement repair contractors were trying to swindle her and she didn't actually need to do anything at all. The poor kid was gearing up to sell a house that she'd only purchased three months before because she was so freaked out. The threat of basement walls collapsing on her baby's crib and bullshit like that. This was the lord's work (spaghetti monster in my case). Far more so than helping some giant developer improve their quarterly earnings by 0.0000017%.
Yes, I've no doubt that my [LIABILITY : REMUNERATION] ratio on that was [KAZILLION : ZERO-ish]. I turn the screws a bit on the folks with the deep pockets so that it all comes out in the wash (I hope). Am I a modern day Robin Hood?? Surely.
